My characters are calling out to me...

Ever since I started writing my story yesterday, my characters have been calling out to me day and night. It's like I can't get away from them.

This is not the first novel I have attempted, and I'm only about a day and a half into it at this point. Who knows if this will go under the "unfinished bin" or not. BUT, I have never had my characters call out to me so much. I have read several articles about characterization, and they often say things like, "Let the characters write the story" and etc... it sounds a little cheesy, but it's almost as if they are real and writing themselves.

I just wanted to see if any of you also experience this or if I am just crazy?

Ever since I started writing my story yesterday, my characters have been calling out to me day and night. It's like I can't get away from them.

This is not the first novel I have attempted, and I'm only about a day and a half into it at this point. Who knows if this will go under the "unfinished bin" or not. BUT, I have never had my characters call out to me so much. I have read several articles about characterization, and they often say things like, "Let the characters write the story" and etc... it sounds a little cheesy, but it's almost as if they are real and writing themselves.

I just wanted to see if any of you also experience this or if I am just crazy?

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I don't know about crazy, but maybe you're lucky? If I was in your position, I'd cancel all appointments and get my BIC on.

This is exactly the problem I have with some of my short stories. Even after I finish, they just keep appearing when I'm day-dreaming. But I've figured out a way to get rid of them;

Immerse yourself in another story. Reading, watching something, listening to stories, it helps. And about letting the characters write the stories; I like to say I don't make up stories, but rather I simply documentate what happens inside my head. Roughly the same thing.

About you going crazy; Wouldn't know about that. As long as you think you are going crazy, it means you're not crazy yet. Once you go crazy; welcome to the club

You're not crazy, you're just a writer. I heard a lot of people on here, and from famous writers in interviews that their characters feel alive to them. Congrats, it means that they are good characters.

Ever since I started writing my story yesterday, my characters have been calling out to me day and night. It's like I can't get away from them.

This is not the first novel I have attempted, and I'm only about a day and a half into it at this point. Who knows if this will go under the "unfinished bin" or not. BUT, I have never had my characters call out to me so much. I have read several articles about characterization, and they often say things like, "Let the characters write the story" and etc... it sounds a little cheesy, but it's almost as if they are real and writing themselves.

I just wanted to see if any of you also experience this or if I am just crazy?

Click to expand...

As I read this, I began to picture a man in a straightjacket, in a padded cell, with only a laptop, pecking away at the keyboad with his tongue.
There's nothing wrong with being crazy. It's been working fine for me so far.
I don't care what they say; the voices in my head are real. REAL!

Ever since I started writing my story yesterday, my characters have been calling out to me day and night. It's like I can't get away from them.

...

I have read several articles about characterization, and they often say things like, "Let the characters write the story" and etc... it sounds a little cheesy, but it's almost as if they are real and writing themselves.

I just wanted to see if any of you also experience this or if I am just crazy?

Click to expand...

This is normal for me. That's honestly all I can say. I take it for granted how normal/usual this is in my case.

I can't say it's not "crazy" in some sense though; I have no social life, no friends or anything, and my characters and writing are really my only company. I think lifelong loneliness can go a long way toward learning how to develop characters and letting them write the story.

There are some people who scoff that "Characters don't write the story, the writer does! The characters are completely under the writer's control!" Don't believe that for one minute. Everyone's writing process is different, and one person can't speak for everybody. While it's true that the chararacters COME from the writer and are PART of the writer, the writer is not always in total control of them. Just because something COMES from us doesn't mean it's totally under our conscious control, and sometimes it's best that way. For me, it's like I don't even develop characters or plot the stories anymore. The characters show up when needed, they do their things, and me, I'm just here to write down what they do.

But yes, they call out to me all the time. I'm used to it. They're the only company I have, after all.

Welcome to my life right now. I can't get away from my characters. They're with me, even after I kill them. They haunt me all the time. I guess it's good cause it gets me in the mood to write. Although I've been getting a bit depressed lately and even they haven't been able to cheer me up, even though they have tried. lol

Yeah, they're all there, in my head. Can't escape them, really. I yell at them sometimes, when I'm alone, and you want to know the scary part? Every now and then, they yell back.

But I think that just proves that they can be real, for anyone, if they're that real for you. Don't let anyone tell you that it's crazy or that your characters can't write their own stories. Mine always have.